Shetlanders have warmly embraced a touch of Scandinavian cultural wellbeing thanks to the introduction of an outdoor sauna next to the islands’ famous tombolo beach at St Ninian’s Isle.
A sauna installed inside a slickly converted horse box has been stationed next to the pristine white sands at St Ninian's Ayre since October 2023.
It offers locals and tourists alike the chance to sample hot-and-cold therapy by combining a deep heat steam with a dip in the icy cold Atlantic Ocean.
Haar Sauna was established by Shetland-raised Hannah Mary Goodlad and her husband Callum Scott
Currently living across the North Sea in Oslo, Hannah Mary says the idea of launching a mobile sauna enterprise first came to the couple in early 2020.
They are hoping to transform folk’s preconceptions about sauna-going as an activity, which in the UK is “typically a dark, dingy experience linked to an indoor swimming pool or something like that”.
Outdoors saunas are widespread in much of Scandinavia, and in Finland in particular, with the tradition so highly treasured that in 2020 it was added to Unesco’s list of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”.
With sauna visits closely associated with emotional welfare and mindfulness, it is perhaps no coincidence that Finland has regularly topped the world happiness index rankings, with most of its fellow Scandinavian neighbours close behind.
Hannah Mary, who is originally from Shetland's ancient capital Scalloway and has worked over in Norway for several years, remembers sitting in a floating sauna in Oslo Fjord during a trip four years ago and “turning to Callum and saying ‘this would work so well in Shetland, and in Scotland’”.
Living in London at the time, they returned to the UK and “thought nothing more of it” before “the pandemic set in and threw all our lives upside down”.
“The whole globe was forced to reconnect with each other and nature again in a way I think we had forgotten,” Hannah Mary says. “We were fortunate enough to both keep our jobs during the pandemic, and we were looking for a project to keep ourselves busy.”
The couple’s initial plan to install a fixed sauna at Waarie Geo, overlooking the Knab and Breiwick on Lerwick’s south-facing coast, is still on the cards.
But they decided to start off with something smaller to test the market – and settled upon building a sauna inside a horsebox, acquired a trailer and set about learning on the job (“we both knew how to do woodwork a bit”).
The end result is a distinctive trailer painted in British racing green, furnished internally using sustainably grown timber – a mixture of red hardwood and aspen sourced from managed forestries in Scotland – and fitted with an Estonian crafted, Huum wood-burning sauna stove.
“It’s been made with a great amount of care,” Hannah Mary says. “We’re both perfectionists and we wanted to create something comfortable, peaceful and beautiful for us to use and for the communities that we would choose to share this with.”
Having completed the conversion in 2021, they initially took the trailer to Aberdeen Beach and then on a tour around various parts of Scotland including the Cairngorms, Glentanner Estate and the River Tay.
“We were the first mobile sauna in Scotland, and that's something we're really proud of. Since then we’ve seen lots of others pop up around the country and around Scotland's coastline. It’s great to see a Scottish sauna culture developing and thriving.”
Hannah Mary is confident that, having survived the gales thrown up across the North Sea at Aberdeen Beach, the “sturdy little unit” will comfortably withstand even the “extra special gale that Shetland can throw our way” throughout the winter months.
The Scandinavian culture we talked about trying to introduce – of sauna and the outdoors – is something that is a natural fit for Shetland.
One obstacle contributing to Scotland being slow to replicate the sauna and outdoor hut culture of Scandinavia is land ownership. They overcame that hurdle by teaming up with the Budge sisters, who own and work the crofting land adjacent to St Ninian’s Isle at Bigton, on Shetland’s south west coast.
“They were really enthusiastic about the prospect of something new coming to their land, and the location of St Ninian’s is just iconic. We’re so lucky that they’re welcoming of the idea, and it’s great to team up with them.”
With a hardy and healthy number of Shetlanders having taken to sea swimming as a mind-cleansing pastime during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the opportunity to add on a sauna session would seem a natural progression.
“Hot-cold, hot-cold is a really common thing,” Hannah Mary explains. “It improves your circulation and builds resilience. Swimming in cold water is really tough – with the cold shock you can focus on nothing else, it sharpens the mind and can become quite addictive.
“Sea swimming really helped us [during the pandemic]. Folk have adapted it into their lifestyle, and what we’re now doing is adding an extra element onto that, because it’s nice to have something warm and hot to go into.”
The health benefits are manifold, and it’s not hard to see why saunas are used so widely in Scandinavia: to unwind and forget the stresses of the working week, to socialise and even to hold business meetings.
Bringing a flavour of that to Shetland is a logical fit, Hannah Mary points out, noting the abundance of similarities – geological, scenic, cultural and social – between Scotland and Norway.
“Especially on the coasts, the people are very similar, and I think that reclaiming our relationship with nature is something we can learn a lot from Norwegians,” she says.
“Every weekend they head off to their huts, go and connect with nature in a way that we’ve kind of lost over the years.”
Hannah Mary and Callum are always keen to collaborate with other small businesses, including yoga instructors, mindfulness and meditation groups and sports clubs.
Haar Sauna’s maiden winter in the islands has turned out as well as they could have hoped so far: “We’re just delighted with how it has turned out, and how it’s been taken on by the local community, but also visitors to the islands as well – it’s just been phenomenal.”
Hannah Mary is quick to point out that none of this could be achieved without their hard-working employees on the ground: “We’ve got a few local staff now, and the business is growing.”
They intend to open a second sauna in Shetland later in 2024, which she describes as “very exciting”.
“It’s just going from strength to strength, so we’re really happy about how it’s turned out,” Hannah Mary adds. “The Scandinavian culture we talked about trying to introduce – of sauna and the outdoors – is something that is a natural fit for Shetland.”
Do you have a great business idea? Discover more about Shetland's dynamic entrepreneurial and enterprising culture.